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Archive for the ‘Interpersonal Agility’ Category

Not about you?

Monday, June 6, 2011 @ 12:06 PM  posted by Linda

I just read a very interesting New York Times Op Ed piece by David Brooks called, It's Not About You. Given the time of year with graduation speeches he has identified the developmental tasks that are facing young people as they graduate and enter the workforce. His message is that these tasks are contradictory to the preparation received by graduates' educations as well as the messages sent in graduation speeches.

I found two of his statements very interesting. The first one ends in a very powerful statement (emphasis is mine):

Today’s graduates are also told to find their passion and then pursue their dreams. The implication is that they should find themselves first and then go off and live their quest. But, of course, very few people at age 22 or 24 can take an inward journey and come out having discovered a developed self.

He goes on to say

Most people don’t form a self and then lead a life. They are called by a problem, and the self is constructed gradually by their calling.

I think the developed self is constructed all our lives, from birth forward. It is influenced by our inborn natures as well as the experiences we have. Self-reflection can start early and contribute to better decision making and self-regulation at any age. I do think those graduates could benefit from knowing themselves well in terms of the information personality type models can give them—their core needs, talents, drives, beliefs, how they tend to interact, how they tend to think about things.

My colleague, Dario Nardi, has been teaching undergraduates at UCLA for over 12 years. In the context of the courses he teaches, he introduces them to temperament and the eight Jungian functions and sometimes Interaction Styles. In his courses he gives them group and individual assignments the personality lenses in the context of the specific course. By the time they graduate, they know a lot about themselves as well as the systems in which they operate. The self-reflection he encourages promotes development. I know, I've met some of his students and the students know. In a way, he is providing them with the education they need to be more flexible in the unstructured environments they will be entering. And they learn about themselves in the process. More powerful than taking an instrument. No wonder he won UCLA's Teacher of the Year Award this year.

My message for college graduates would be: It is about you, but not ALL about you. Know yourself and develop a practice of self-reflection. If you don't already have a sense of passion or a dream to fulfill, do work with that sense of self-reflection so you'll know when you find it. Some of us get it early, some later.

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Out of a Box and Into Interpersonal Agility™

Saturday, November 20, 2010 @ 11:11 AM  posted by Linda
This post is not about out-of-the-box thinking, but about how to keep clients and workshop participants from feeling like they’re being put in a box when introducing them to type models and using type instruments like the MBTI® instrument. Clients often resist type information because of the fear of being put in a box or ‘typecast’ by others. And perhaps the greater danger is limiting themselves by the box they create from the information.
 
We have a natural tendency to categorize and label. Like the young child with a dog who calls a cat ‘doggie’, we first learn the general characteristics of something, then we generalize them to similar things, than we begin to differentiate.
 

Set-up or Getting Started

The way instruments and/or models are introduced can help take mitigate the problem of people resisting the usefulness and value of the work being done. It can also make a huge difference in how people apply it to themselves to either be in a box or to use it to develop interpersonal agility. Here are just a few of things I use from the Interstrength® Method.
 
1. Introduce type as a self-discovery process not an instrument result. When you name a workshop name it for the application, not the instrument or model. When you use an instrument or model in coaching, focus on this as a tool to help meet the coaching goals. 
 
2. Introduce type as a language to help them understand themselves and others and communicate about these differences in helpful ways.
 
3. Clarify the difference between the core self, the developed self, and the contextual self. I tell them that while we are working to get at the core self, who they are is the developed self. I create this as a chart with concentric circles and post it so we can reference it frequently.
 
I use other graphics and tools such as plastic filters, shapes and shadows, presentation of both patterns and dynamics, Johari window and more, but if you do just the above things you will have great success in setting the stage for a very powerful workshop.
 

During the Session Watch Your Language and Continue to Clarify Type

Through out the session try to use language that encourages thinking of the type preferences as processes. I have preferences for INTP, I am not an iNtuitor. I naturally prefer, and therefore privilege, information that is intuitive, abstract information using extraverted intuiting, AND I attend to a lot of Sensing information. Use language that says ‘preferences for…’. I know it is awkward at first, but if you are serious about keeping people out of the box, then it is worth the effort. And you don’t have to use it all the time. Once people are clear among themselves that it isn’t a box, you can use the shorthand. However, using nouns like Sensor or Feeler instead of gerunds (…ing) increases the likelihood of feeling put in a box. For example using ‘preference for Sensing’ rather than ‘Sensor’ keeps us mindful that these are mental processes, not types. When we make it a noun, it becomes a box! Jung described eight psychological types and conveniently named them by the process that predominated (extraverted Sensing types, introverted Sensing types, etc) However, he emphasized that these were stereotypes and that no one was a pure type. With all our years of using type, we can do better than that. We can avoid language that limits.
 
Also be sure to give them patterns to try on for size like essential qualities of Temperament, Interaction Styles, or Whole Types using narrative descriptions or holistic graphics and themes. Give them all the descriptions to read, not just a report from an instrument with only very brief description. It also helps to show them the dynamic processes or polarities of the chosen model that show them ways they can shift and stretch beyond their natural preferences. And show them things they have in common with others so they can connect.
 

Open Closing

As you move into the targeted application of using type keep self-discovery going. Encourage people to stay open. As you close the session encourage them to read other descriptions, get feedback from others, and continue to explore. Factor into the cost of the session a booklet for each participant that describes the other types and the dynamics. This way, they’ll know they are free to chose their best fit and have a tool to do so. This will be much more valuable than an extensive report that may not be their best fit or even if it is doesn’t show them how to shift perspectives and increase their interpersonal agility.
 
Note: As I’ve finished this I notice how much Directing language I’ve used instead of my more natural Informing preference. Maybe I'm become more interpersonally agile. I’ll resist going back and making it more informing. So if you have feedback on that, please let me know.
 
One last note: A shameless commercial: I'd love to see you in an Integral Type Certification training if you want to really get skilled at using the Interstrength Method.
 
I'd love to hear your comments and ideas.
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Transformative and Transactional Leadership

Wednesday, November 3, 2010 @ 06:11 PM  posted by Linda
Today’s Los Angeles Times had an op-ed piece entitled “How Obama Lost His Voice and How Can He Get It Back?” I don’t usually read this section of the paper, but a sentence caught my attention. “Abandoning the "transformational" model of his presidential campaign, Obama has tried to govern as a "transactional" leader.”
 
This blog is not about Obama, but about some thoughts on Leadership. I hadn’t thought about James MacGregor Burns’ concepts since my doctoral program. After all, Burns coined these terms over 30 years ago. They could be briefly summarized as transformational leadership is about changing the ‘world’ and transactional leadership is about maintaining what is. It occurred to me that there might be some relationship to type or to temperament in these terms.
 
Burns’ wrote his 1978 book, Leadership, as a political scientist and a historian. This book sits on my bookshelf so I opened it up. I don’t think the simple definition above does justice to his concepts so I won’t really comment on those until I reread the book.
 
On the surface, one might say that transactional leadership would go with the Stabilizer temperament with logistical intelligence or the Improviser temperament with tactical intelligence and that transformational would go with the Theorist temperament with strategic intelligence and the Catalyst temperament with diplomatic intelligence. Or in psychological type terms—a preference for Sensing or for iNtuiting respectively.
 
Either way is a risky conclusion because it ignores that we are more than a type or a temperament. These models will predict what comes naturally and what we might be inclined to do by nature. They do not limit our behavior. We can and many do develop interpersonal agility. We can gain skill in strategy, tactics, logistics, and diplomacy. We can learn to value and therefore embrace the voices of each temperament.
 
In addition type dynamics and type development theory tell us that even when we have a preference for Sensing (aka tangible) information, we have the capacity to access and use iNtuiting (aka conceptual) information. In my experience we do both in tandem, but one will be in the foreground and the other in the background so we may not notice what we are doing and we would still privilege our preference. As we mature, we can come to value the less preferred process more and thus make space for it. Hence, type development.
 
In my view, good leadership will involve being transformative when needed and transactional when needed. A leader needs to engage or at least make space for strategy, tactics, logistics, and diplomacy. If he/she does not, nothing will get done. A wise leader will recognize when an certain approach is more relevant to the situation or context. Perhaps that is the message in the article. Obama had a transformative message. Then he hit the reality of making things happen, which is incredibly challenging in a democratic, highly political system like our government. He may need to find his voice again and yet, the other perspectives have to be met.
 
What do you think?
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